Saturday, May 6, 2017

Roku UK Channel Store - Weekly RoundUp #217

Hi, everyone !!

It's a case of mixed blessings this week, as regards the BIG NEWS STORY for Roku-related matters, with the good news (for Roku USA users) being the announcement that "Twitter for Roku" has finally come to the platform in the United States. You can read more about it in the "Official" Press Release from the Roku Newsroom, or else this related post from the "Official" Roku Stream Blog. The mixed blessing, and (therefore) bad news, from a Roku UK perspective... is this new video app by Twitter (for the Roku platform) is US-ONLY and, sadly, NOT AVAILABLE ON UK ROKU DEVICES... at least for the time being. Those of you from the U.S. can easily add the "Twitter for Roku" channel via the Roku (USA) Web Channel Store online while, for the benefit of readers in other "regions", here is a screenshot of the channel description so you can see what you are (currently) missing:-

HINT:- Please CLICK on the above image TO ENLARGE IT for easier viewing !!

As with most Roku channels, you are probably better-off reading an unbiased, independent appraisal of the app to gain a better insight as to what is on offer (and how it performs) from a user-perspective. So, for ease of reference, here is a link to the 'Roku Guide' review of the "Twitter for Roku" channel so readers from all Roku "regions" can also view the pros and cons of this "New & Notable" app. If nothing else this third-party review explains, far more clearly than the "Official" description from the Roku (USA) Web Channel Store, exactly which aspects of Twitter you can and cannot expect to get use of if (and, hopefully, when - from a non U.S. perspective) you add the "Twitter for Roku" app.

I was also disappointed to learn that the official RT (Russia Today) channel had been withdrawn from the Roku platform at some point during the last seven days. Luckily, for UK Roku users who still wish to access world news from an 'RT' point-of-view, there is a live feed of 'RT' available among the free channels provided by the new 'TVPlayer' app for Roku devices. If you are from a country other than the UK, there are also several Roku private channels which can give you content from 'RT' and numerous other providers. If you have yet to install any of these apps... they are available in all Roku regions, including the UK, and details of the codes needed to install them are as follows:-

To add private channel 'Newswire' USE CODE: newswire, or;

To add private channel 'Nowhere TV' USE CODE: h9dwc, or;

To add private channel 'channelPEAR' USE CODE: channelpear

Any of these three private channels will enable you to stream news content from 'RT' on your Roku device(s) and I can happily recommend all three as worthy additions to your Roku channel selection, with the added bonus that they are all available for free... although there is a "premium" option, with extra benefits, for 'channelPEAR' subscribers who would like to remove the restrictions imposed on free users in respect of both the number of devices and media sources that you are allowed! ;-) :-)

One channel that will (hopefully) not be removed from Roku anytime soon is 'Amazon Video' who, according to a recent report by 'Deadline', have commissioned a new half-hour comedy series which will star Danny DeVito and Jeff Goldblum as a broken-up music duo who find themselves forced to re-unite in spite of their hatred for one another. It's not just the actors with 'pedigree' either... as the show is created and written by Tim Long (The Simpsons) and produced by Brian Grazer (24, Rush, American Gangster, A Beautiful Mind) plus Francie Calfo (Empire, Those Who Kill) together with Danny DeVito and his son Jake. A release date for the series has yet to be set... but, as I understand it, this (currently) untitled series will be made available on 'Prime Video' for Amazon subscribers.

Another 'Amazon Video' story that surfaced recently, via an article on the 'Recode' website, suggests that there may finally be an official app for 'Apple TV' devices sometime later this year. Sources have said that the two companies “are close to an agreement” which means we could see 'Amazon Video' on 'Apple TV' when their much-anticipated 4K-capable model is released later this year. So, why talk about a streaming device from 'Apple' on a blog about 'Roku' media players? Well, be it for no other reason, I am (at least) curious to see whether Roku will be prompted to (finally) release their own 4K devices in the UK to avoid further loss of sales in the high-end video streaming market... such as they have already done by allowing both Amazon's 'Fire TV' set-top box and Google's 'Chromecast Ultra' to steal a march on them in that department. If recent performance is anything to go by, we'll most likely see a 4K-capable NowTV Box before Roku brings any new models to the UK! :-/ :-|

In other Roku-related news... though not specific to Roku users per se, the ever-newsworthy 'Netflix' has issued yet another press release which revealed how they have just signed a licensing agreement with Chinese streaming giant, iQIYI, that ensures 'Netflix Originals', such as "Stranger Things", will be legitimately available to streamers in China and (hopefully) stem the tide of pirate streams that many people there have been resorting to, in order to watch these popular series.

Meanwhile, as has often been the case of late, the list of new additions (once again) begins with a few more channels that, despite being new to UK Roku devices, are not listed in the "New" category (i.e. genre) of the Roku UK Channel Store. Blogging specifically about Roku streaming devices & other Roku-related matters, I love discovering apps like these... because they illustrate precisely why it's worth reading my 'Weekly RoundUp' posts. Any Roku users who simply rely on whatever they see listed under the "New" category in the built-in channel store of their streaming media players (to identify the latest apps for UK Roku devices) risk missing-out on channels like this altogether. Other websites offering Roku channel listings will base their contents on the Roku USA Channel Store, which means they also include apps that are unavailable to Roku UK users. So, if you really want to know what's available to UK Roku users channel-wise... be sure to read this blog every week! ;-) :-)

However, before I run through the new channels... a reminder that UK Roku users are still subject to restrictions (imposed by Roku) and (bizarrely) remain unable to access the channel descriptions from the web store on the Roku (USA) website. That said, the majority of text in those web listings can also be found within the individual descriptions from the built-in "Channel Store" (accessed via "Streaming Channels" from the main menu) on all Roku devices and, together with the associated screenshots (where available), should give a pretty good indication of what those channels are about.

My advice to any UK-based readers of this blog is to ignore the links below (and to the left of) each channel icon shown here and (instead) rely on the link to the right (below each channel icon) which (where available) will redirect you to an 'Roku Guide' review for additional details on that channel. As it stands, the links below (and to the left of) each icon are (currently) only of use to readers of this blog from the USA. This means that Roku users from the other "supported" regions of the world (i.e. Ireland, Canada, France and Mexico) are, like those of us in the UK, unable to browse the Roku Web Channel Store - which for now (at least) remains an exclusive privilege of Roku users in the USA. :-(

Hopefully Roku will (one day) wake-up to the fact that improving the experience for users in "other" Roku "regions" is just as important as it is for those who buy & use their products in the U.S. and denying access to the Roku website does not help the end-user experience for those of us (outside the USA) who wish to browse the web channel store. Meanwhile, that which Roku (apparently) doesn't want UK Roku users to see on their website (i.e. the list of new channels) is regularly summarised on this blog in my 'Weekly RoundUp' posts. So, without further ado, here's my 'Weekly RoundUp' of all the new Roku channels released between 30th of April 2017 and 6th May 2017:-

***FILED UNDER: "FOOD" in the Roku UK Channel Store WHEN FIRST RELEASED***

PLEASE NOTE:- That, at the time of publishing this post, I had been unable to find any reference to a description of the 'Taste It - Food' channel from the Roku (USA) Web Channel Store. Likewise, and as a direct result, there is also (currently) no channel icon [aka "HD Poster" in Roku terminology] and no active link to an 'Roku Guide' review for this new Roku channel. The only information that is known about this app comes from what is featured among the few descriptive details from the built-in channel store on all Roku streaming media players. Needless to say, you can easily look this up for yourselves simply by accessing the channel store on your devices but, for ease of reference in respect of this article, I am going to reproduce that info here for you now...

I have a hunch, based on the fact that (from the one screenshot available) this 'Taste It - Food' app seems to feature episodes of "Epic Chef" (which were also on another app by the same developer), this may just be a re-branding of the "Epic Meal Time" channel for Roku devices. That earlier app had the unique channel store identifier "134068" so, if / when the 'Taste It - Food' channel appears in the Roku (USA) Web Channel Store at any time in the future, we will be able to see if my theory bore any truth. Although (thankfully) infrequent, this kind of thing does happen from time-to-time... so I would not be too surprised if that was indeed the case (again) this time around. To add further weight to my speculative thoughts, the "Epic Meal Time" channel has now mysteriously disappeared from the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store and (presumably) from other Roku "regions" around the globe so I am quietly confident that my initial hunch will prove to be correct. Meanwhile... I would suggest that the U.S. readers among you take a look at the Roku (USA) Web Channel Store description for "Epic Meal Time", and those from other countries (including UK) refer to the 'Roku Guide' review of the "Epic Meal Time" channel, for what I believe will be sufficient relevant information for you to get a pretty good idea of what this latest Roku app from 'Unreel Entertainment LLC' is about, too! ;-) :-)